Tag: Sailor Sid

It’s been interesting to see how the archetypes popular in the 1960s/1970s Gay Leather scene have been appropriated and assimilated into modern pop culture- from the in your face aesthetics of Oslo’s Turbonegro (“We aren’t really gay but we like that people might think we are. And if it helps some gay kid come out of the closet, then that’s cool. Or if it helps some guy that hates queer rethink his position, then that’s great too.” 1) to the tragically hip “flagging” hankies 2 in their back pockets and wearing leather armbands and a Muir cap, the classic look of a still present subculture has, like it or not, lost some of it’s cultural exclusivity.

Still, for my money, I like living in a world where we all borrow from each other.

This photo from Sailor Sid Diller’s 1978 trip to London features Sid (left) and Alan ‘Mr. Sebastian’ Oversby (right) looking very much the part of 1970s body piercers.

I’m not sure if I ever posted the backside of the ‘manage a trois of horns’ photo that I turned into 2015’s Sacred Debris/APP post card- I need to get better about keeping track of uploads (or hire a personal assistant to keep track for me) so assuming that I haven’t-

Backside of image FH36A- Sailor Sid Diller, Jim Ward and Bud ‘Viking’ Navaro, February 1982 from the collection of Sailor Sid Diller/Jack Yount. Regular readers know that I never pass up a chance to post septum tusk photos, so I’m including the front side as well. Also, I like that shag carpeting.

The Sacred Debris archive has several alternate prints from a photo session between Sailor Sid Diller and Viking Navaro documenting his black graphic phallus tattoos, with several featuring some iteration of the note in the print above- Sid exuberantly announcing that the semi-abstract graphic images on Bud’s legs are, in fact, “cocks!”

When I’m going through stacks of unsorted prints looking for potential updates for the SD blog it’s easy to gravitate towards photos featuring heavily modified personalities from our community’s past; Viking Navaro’s atavistic aesthetic, a fully naked and smiling Sailor Sid Diller or Jack Yount showing off his Disney tattoos and subincised penis- it’s the kind of thing that tends to get the most notice and reblogs, which expose more viewers to the site where they get suckered into reading blurbs about decade old t-shirts and my often espoused theory that pants don’t necessarily have a place in a piercing room.

But for most piercers and tattooers those heavily modified clients are the exception and not the rule. The majority are casually modified, a few tattoos or piercings because they like the way it looks or how it makes them feel. They’re the clients who keep the doors open between (oftentimes needlessly) complicated ‘projects’ and conceptual nonsense that exists for a Instagram post and not much else.

In an1996/7 interview with now retired piercer Jon Cobb he relates the story of a woman who chose a single piercing over the expectations of falling in line with the status quo, proving that it’s not what you have, it’s why you have it:

“Our rites of passage are getting drunk, going to college, getting laid… But this is a moment where you really do have to earn it. This is going to hurt.Why am I doing this? And I get to maybe help you see that you aren’t what you do, and maybe it is alright that you want something for yourself, and maybe it would be OK to tell work to stick it this time, and if it doesn’t work out I’ll find a job where I can be me. So many people are starting to touch on that because we’ve set our world up to fail and I’ve got a chance to let them know what else can be. I’ve had a woman trade in a $50,000 job over her labret. It was symbolic of the bigger picture — as soon as she did it, she cried, and realized that she only needed $50,000 a year because $40,000 of it was paying for her huge house and her Jaguar that all she did was look at and cruise around in… and now she may be walking down the beach and eating oranges that cost a couple bucks a day. You want to tell me who’s having the better time? She’s living as a human, as part of the Earth, and not as an alien on it.”

This piercing/photograph came from Sailor Sid Diller’s Silver Anchor Studio, exact year unknown. (possibly early 1980s)

Another example of solid black tattooing by tattoo legend Cliff Raven. Taken at his Hollywood studio in 1982 featuring a glimpse of Bob (last seen in Bob’s back) and Sid Diller’s fresh blackwork. While primarily known for his large scale Japanese influenced work, Raven was also an early adapter of solid black ‘pre-technological’ style tattooing.

Raven, born Cliff Ingram, won the Tattoo Artist of the Year award from the First Annual International Tattoo Convention in February 1976. 1

We’re supposed to get some sort of ‘mega-storm’ here on the East Coast of the US tonight; feet of snow, chaos, Human sacrifice, dogs and cats living together… mass hysteria!

Me? I’m skeptical of the predictions but, should I wake up tomorrow morning to find a Winter Wonderland outside I’ve got tons of video I could be importing, photos I could be scanning and sorting or abandoned articles removed from the back burner and finished up.

If only there were more frequent natural disasters you folks may get more frequent updates from me.

One thing I can promise is- should the mega-storm actually hit and I find myself chained to my desk all day.. I’ll take a cue from Sailor Sid and adopt a casual workplace attire.

Living up to my promise to always post septum tusk photos when I come across them-
This photograph features Sailor Sid Diller (right) and friend from one of Sid’s UK visits. It was taken at Alan “Mr. Sebastian” Oversby’s apartment. There was no code on the back of the print, so this could have come from Sid’s late 1970s visit or a later trip.

Consider this as the safe for work counterpart to the recent NSFW T&P Parties post; a few friends sitting around, showing off their tattoos and body piercings when polite society was a little less welcoming to that sort of thing. Tattoos were generally kept below the collar and above the wrist and piercings were easily hidden or removed, like the two piece septum tusks that Sid and the fellow on the far left are wearing.

FI-OA1.
Front:
This February 1982 photograph comes from Sailor Sid Diller’s collection and features Sid showing off his new stomach tattoo (possibly by Cliff Raven) on the Los Angeles, California front porch of Gauntlet/PFIQ founder Jim Ward.

I’m not really getting much feedback positive or negative on the ‘Safe Guide to Professional Piercing’ series, so I think this will be the last one that goes up for a while. This installment features Sailor Sid Diller piercing Jack Yount’s scrotum in the traditional ‘hafada’ placement. Unlike previous Safe Guide videos, Hafadas finds Sid wearing gloves during the piercing. The videos provide no off-camera context as to why they wore gloves for some procedures and not others, but I’m sure they had their reasons. It’s hard to say.

Recent Posts: Occult Vibrations

The incomparable Paul Sayce spent some time chatting with Alex Binnie at this year’s London Tattoo Convention; the history of Into You, memories of Mr. Sebastian and more. If you don’t already subscribe to Paul’s channel– treat yourself.

Our friend Alice of the Dead will be showing new paintings this weekend at I HATE TATTOOS in London; she’s promised strange new art, good music and excellent company. Saturday, May 26 at 6 PM – 11:55 PM I Hate Tattoos Tattoo Studio Unit 1 400-404 York Way N7 9LR London, United Kingdom